Adjective City
All Natural Lemon & Lime Flavors Turning Into Small (Gern Blansten) Those who followed the shoegazer movement of a few years ago ought to eat this up. Blissfully layered splendor calling to mind a mixture of My Bloody Valentine and Cocteau Twins, for starters. Fuzzed out, spacey, catchy songs with good melodies. A true gem. ( MA ) • Corrupted/Noothgrush Split CD (Reservoir) Five songs of sludge. Noothgrush’s three didn’t do much for me. Corrupted’s caught me due to endless repetition, ponderous ultra-slowness (“Inactive” is 19 minutes!), foreboding, and amazing growl-speak vocals. ( AC ) • Genuine The Pessimist Project EP (Temperance) Oldschool style hardcore mixed with SxE GO!-core, and a little dirge-core at times. Sounds like a heavy version of Intent – that is good. It kinda sucks that it’s only a five song EP, because I’d love to hear a full length from this band. Also includes a free Krishna chant at the end! Neato! ( BS ) • God Lives Underwater Life in the So-Called Space Age (1500/A&M) All grown up and moved to a thinly disguised major label, God Lives Underwater continues their innovative fusion of electro-ware driven alterna-rock. Sounding like an opiated and sedated Nine Inch Nails being tickled by fuzzy guitars, GLU definitely deserves more recognition from all you indie-technoids. What’s good enough for video game soundtrack is good enough for you. ( CJ ) • Good Riddance Ballads From The Revolution (Fat Wreck Chords) More punk than your mom, faster than a speeding cabby, able to leap over small farm animals – sort of – it’s Good Riddance! Their new CD is “more of the same,” I suppose. Sounds like the last album and their first one mixed up into one big shabang. Fifteen songs of lost love, girls, and friendship. It’s good! The picture of Chuck + GG rules. ( BS ) • The Mendoza Line Poems to a Pawnshop (Kindercore) Fairly good pop, unassuming in its approach but quite enjoyable in composition. “Seventh Round” sounds like a lost Pixies track, while “If You Knew Her as I Know Her” has a chiming accompaniement with a fat, round bass bottom for an interesting effect. ( KC ) • Midvinter At the Sight of the Apocalypse Dragon (Death/Metal Blade) Satan worshipping Swedish meatheads. Not bad, if you like songs longer than eternity that aren’t in American. Sounds like all the cock-rock from the ’80s, but heavier and a little more serious about “riding the pony” for Satan. Think Merciful Fate, but weirder. ( BS ) • NON God And Beast (Mute) Creepy, evil sound layerings with spoken/yelled vocals from Boyd Rice and Douglas P. (Death In June). Boyd rants about war and force issues. The music is seriously dark and scary, yet hypnotic and seductive. Less unrelentingly noise-oriented than some of his past works, but still challenging in its own way. ( LG ) • Silver Apples Decatur (Whirlybird) Seven word review: If David Lynch had gone into music. Six word review: Will make you paranoid and weird. Five: Gray hair will grow early. Four: One track, ghostly ambient. Three: Freaks you out. Two: Head rush. One: Cool. ( GS ) • Sister Carol Potent Dub (Shanachie) No offense, but I’ve heard better dubs come out of my ass. Better luck next time you turn that Casio Keyboard on. ( GS ) • Spatula Despina By Land (Squealer) Indie rock meets jazz, with the emphasis on the instrumentation. Vocals are few and far between, and it took me a while to notice. Sometimes rocking, usually low-key and patient, these are all good songs usually approached from an odd angle. I keep hearing jazz in this. Very good. ( MA )
Who Wrote about Them
Martin Albelo • Andrew Chadwick • Kurt Channing • Louis Goldman • Carole Jaszewski • Gregory Schaefer • Brian Shelley
Where to Get Them
Fat Wreck Chords, P.O. Box 460144, San Francisco, CA 94146 • Gern Blansten, P.O. Box 356, River Edge, NJ 07661 • Kindercore Records, P.O. Box 461, Athens, GA 30603 • Metal Blade Records, 2828 Cochran St., Suite 302, Simi Valley, CA 93065-2793; http://www.iuma.com/Metal\_Blade • Mute Records, 140 W. 22nd Street, Ste. 10A, New York, NY 10011 • Reservoir, P.O. Box 790366, Middle Village, NY 11379-0366 • Shanachie Records, 13 Laight St., New York, NY 10013; http://www.shanachie.com • Squealer Music, P.O. Box 229, Blacksburg, VA 24063-0229 • Temperance Records, P.O. Box 685, Northfield, NJ 08225; temprecs@intserv.com • Whirlybird Records, 28 Decatur Ave., Annapolis, MD 21403
